Oil $180, gas $5.50

[caseydog]

And you can bet yer butt they'll find some way to blame Bush, Cheney & Halliburton...

Joseph

Who will blame it on Bill Clinton and Al Gore.

[Elumia]

We have plenty of room for new "power plants" on the roofs of every Walmart, grocery store, and even homes are suitable for solar and some wind. It will just take the will (and subsidies like Germany has done) to make it happen. Could the local power company lease the roof of the Walmart? Will Walmart develop an energy company? Why not require every new shopping center over 100,000 square feet to fill its roof with solar panels? With this kind of mandate, solar panels will come down to a price that most of us can afford.

How much would you pay as a "parking fee" if you could plug in for a charge while you shopped? How about a meter on the receptacle, insert your visa and the flow of electrons begins.

We also need to turn more waste into fuel. A pilot program at a local utility is turning oil and grease recovered from the sewer into biodiesel. They believe they can get 100K gallons a year, enough to fuel their fleet for a year.

Many sewer utilities also digest waste into methane to supplement electrical use.

I'd much rather drive an electric car. 100% available torque at 0 speed. No more emissions check, no more check engine light, catalytic converters and all that mechanical maintenance. If I could recharge at home, no stopping at the gas station. The only thing holding back is a viable battery/charging technology for long term driving. I think Most people would be happy to have a vehicle that they could reliably drive 2-300 miles a day. they seem to be afraid of the "what if I want to go on a road trip". That could be solved with some sort of hybrid.

It's too bad the Neighborhood electric vehicles (NEV) are limited to 25MPH. If the government allowed speeds up to 40MPH, they would be much more suitable for in town trips like going to the store and taking kids to school. Thinking outside the box, they would be the ideal vehicle to let kids learn to drive in alone. From 16-18 you could get a license for a NEV (alone) or with an adult in a highway car, after 18 you could qualify for a full fledged highway capable car by yourself.

We have plenty of alternatives in this country, we just need to think in other directions.

Mark

[Arne]

You can blame anyone you want, but while oil will be around for years to come, 'cheap' oil is becoming non-existent. It used to bubble out of the ground (100 years ago in Pennsylvania), now we drill 5 miles down to find it. Well, actually, 'we' rarely drill down anywhere to get oil. We depend on our enemies for most of it..... now there's a rude thought.

Add to that the rapidly expanding economies of China, India, etc., and all the growing demand, and we will get to the point where 5 dollar gas will seem cheap. The growing world wide demand for oil will drive prices endlessly upwards.

[Aaron Coffee]

I say we build cars to run on a different form of gas, but then the price of beans(as in pork and beans)will skyrocket.

[Finntec]

How long will it be until we have to tell kids, "In the old days we used to be able to drive all the way across the country and go on camping trips. One year, I drove all the way to Alaska." Any takers?

[Hamcan]

Elumina, the electric car is already viable for the average commute in Canada and the U.S. with current battery design. Google average commute and you get varying estimates but 16 miles one way is a common estimate. Current EV technology will easily provide that range return at 30 to 40 mph in typical city driving. It is more difficult to reach that range at highway speeds but how many of us commute at reduced speeds? There is a big potential market for short range plug in electrics but none of the current auto manufacturers want to go there for reasons that are not clear. The small companies like Tesla Motors are proposing silly toys that look like zoomy sports cars and ignoring the real need for short range practical runabouts.
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The good news is that there are a number of companies that are now offering conversions that a reasonably handy person (people who build Tear Drops) can put together them selves. I am in the planning stages for one that will take me to the golf course and back. I will require a range of 60 km (38 miles) to do that, however I have permission to plug in at the course since they already have plugins for electric carts so it is an easy project. The complicating factor is the highway to the golf course has a normal traffic flow of about 60 to 65 mph.

The project will cost approx. $4000 plus the cost of a suitable small donor vehicle if I do all the work myself. So $5000 is a reasonable estimate and on the high side for someone with real DC electric knowledge. Estimated cost to recharge will be about 3 cents per mile at current rates in my area. In the future I hope to charge with a wind generator but that project will have to wait for another day.

Regards, JG